Conquering the world one stiletto step at a time: Slimming Voodoo aka the optical illusion dress

Whenever I hear the term "optical illusion", only one image comes to my mind and it's nothing fashionable or fierce - it's Sheldon's Doppler effect costume at Penny's Halloween Costume Party.hahaha

Bazzinga! The unflattering version of optical illusion.

With his height, Jim Parsons, literally, looked like a zebra who's walking on two feet. It did make good comedy but I don't think anyone would like to be caught dead wearing any version of that fabric. Lol Thank the fashion gods, optical illusion now refers to a fashion ingenuity that will make anyone look 10lbs lighter and 10 times hotter. ;)

Make it work!

I distinctly remember the Levi's challenge of Project Runway from years back. Sweet P, the tattoed rocker cum fashionista, came up with a blue stunner that seems to have an instant weight loss effect in it. No, it didn't have built in Spanks but it did make the model's waist an itty bitty tiny (not that she needs!!!). They did say black (or any other dark colors for that matter) can make you look thin, but if combined with lighter hues and is strategically placed in all the right areas, it will make you look hot! ;) And this is exactly what Sweet P did. The she used a darker shade of blue (or possibly black, sorry, I can't remember) in the waist area and a little bit close to the hem. I'm not sure if this was really her goal but it did came out great and to this day, I think the dress is still very much wearable.

Fast forward to the recent years, red carpets and runways, alike, seem to be peppered with the Slimming Voodoo dress favored by curvy celebs like Kate Winslet and Kim Kardashian. Stella McCartney seems to be the favorite but both Herve Leger (of the bondage dress fame) and Chanel also came out with their own versions (Chanel's is divine! Now I understand why Rachel Zoe (and a bevy of others) is obsessed with Monsieur Lagerfeld.).